Sean McVerry (Union Transfer, March 9, 2019] [Aurora]

After seeing Aurora in New York last year, I knew I’d go see her again if she came back to the States. So I was pretty excited that she was scheduled to play Union Transfer. I bought three tickets–one for me, one for S. and one for T. This was going to be her first club show. She had been to an arena to see Katy Perry, but I thought this experience would be really different for her.

Going in, she honestly wasn’t quite as excited about the whole thing as I thought she’d be. I guess we’ve been to enough performances that this one didn’t seem very different. We found a great spot against one of the lower raised sections. This allowed S. and T. to rest against the wall and still have a great view.

Before the show, I listened to one or two songs from the opening act, Talos, and liked what I heard–atmospheric and keyboardy with high vocals and a cool rocking undercurrent. So I was surprised when a nicely dressed fellow came out with an acoustic guitar.

Turns out there was an extra support act for a few of the east coast shows. I couldn’t imagine who he was. The fans were absolutely bonkers for him even before he started. Was he some kind of local guy given a cool support slot? Well, no. Although he was the only American playing that night. Turns out he is Aurora’s keyboardist for this tour. During intermission I asked someone how he managed to go on tour with her. Sadly I missed the answer to that.

He was very thankful for the opportunity to play his songs before us. Hey alternated between guitar and keyboards. And his voice was really impressive. I’m not going to say that you have to be an amazing musician to play with Aurora, but you have to have a great voice, because Aurora has a great voice and you need to keep up. So his voice was powerful and he could hit some great falsettos.

He was super friendly and funny and after playing for twenty minutes, he thanked us and left the stage.